Koolhaas or Kunstler?

This brief vid illustrates the sort of perspective on historic preservation as an engine of economic development, neighborhood and community revitalization that I intend when I urge that the modern architects, such as Rem Koolhaas "...should get out of their cloud and take this argument to the heart of Brooklyn and tell us what they see."



This is an approach of value in revival of many historic urban communities including restoration of Holy Cross in post-Katrina New Orleans. It may not be glamorous or monumental but it is the built environment serving the needs of life lived human to human.


Background on Koolhaas
An Architect’s Fear That Preservation Distorts
Inga Saffron: Is Historical Preservation Strangling Cities?
NY Landmarks Conservancy weighs in -- “Cronocaos” or “Crockocaos?” Rem Koolhaas vs. Preservation

Other Views
Death by Nostalgia
Historic Preservation and Our Cities


And for a considerably different view, James H Kunstler is someone that I have been paying attention to for more than a decade now. My having spent 12 years at 5 hours per day commuting, driving alone on the Long Island Expressway, usually in the darkness of early morning or early night, it really bugs me that we do not have a world built where we can afford to live near where we work.



LinkedIn Discussions related to the Rem Koolhaas exhibition at the Group: Means, Methods & Materials for Restoration of the Built Environment
Discussion thread started by Steve Stokowski
Discussion thread started by Jana Gross

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